By We all know that oxygen is essential for life as we know it, but what we are now learning is that in concentrated forms, it may also help with chronic pain management. The treatment called Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy is being researched and used by numerous people who are seeking to test the merits and see what type of relief it can actually bring.
In the May 2015 issue of the journal Pain Practice, researchers compiled 25 studies that focused on using hyperbaric oxygen therapy for pain management. What they found is that the treatment is increasingly becoming recognized as a potential option for a variety of ailments, including chronic pain. They report that their findings indicate the treatment may be useful in helping to treat chronic pain symptoms, including trigeminal neuralgia, chronic headache, fibromyalgia, and complex regional pain syndrome (1).
According to the National Institutes of Health, hyperbaric oxygen therapy is a therapy that increases the amount of oxygen in the blood. This is done through the use of a special pressure chamber that you lay down in (2). The chamber has an increased atmospheric pressure that increases the rate at which the body can absorb oxygen. On a molecular level, this process reduces inflammation, stimulates healing, and is believed to help close the neural pathways which are responsible for the pain.
The treatment is generally offered at out-patient clinics, in private settings, and hospitals. Multiple sessions may be needed, with each sessions lasting around 60-90 minutes. The fee for this type of treatment ranges, depending on what type of setting it’s done in, from $200 at private places to $2,000 at hospitals. It is difficult to get this treatment covered by health insurance.
In recent years, people have heard of because of celebrities—as it’s been reported to have been used by both Michael Jackson and Tim Tebow. Those with chronic pain may want to consider this as one more option to try when it comes to managing their condition, but hyperbaric oxygen therapy for pain is so new that your doctor may not be familiar with it, and you may have to pay for it out-of-pocket.
Source:
- Pain Practice. 2015 May 19. doi: 10.1111/papr.12312.
- National Institutes of Health. Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy. <https://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/002375.htm>
